I Found My Inner Champion

Skating Through Life

I've been a figure-skating fan all my life, but I didn't actually hit the ice until my late 20s. I had just dropped 30 pounds, and though going to the gym had helped me transform my body, the thrill was gone. The idea of nothing to shoot for but more mileage on the treadmill left me apathetic. When a friend who ran the pro shop at a rink offered to teach me to skate, I figured it was the perfect antidote to gym boredom. I was surprised when he handed me a pair of hockey skates, but I went with it. Soon I joined an intramural hockey team and eventually started coaching. I loved it -- the speed, the competition, the way it toned my thighs. Recently, though, I'd been coaching more than I was playing, and I was ready to shake up my routine again -- the physical one, and maybe my day-to-day one, too.

The Right Offer, The Right Time

When AMC told me I'd gotten the part and explained what my training would entail -- two weeks of daily practice with an Olympic coach and ballet lessons to improve my "carriage" -- the words "golden opportunity" flashed in my mind. I had no illusions that I'd learn enough to be a threat to Michelle Kwan, but I thought it might be a sign that my luck was about to improve. It was January, and I wanted to put the previous year behind me. I'd had a horrendous breakup, my year-end numbers at work weren't as high as I had hoped, and my one vacation was a bust because I got stuck in the airport for days due to bad weather.

During my first session, though, I wondered what the hell I had gotten myself into. My coach, five-time U.S. ice-dancing champion Peter Tchernyshev, had me skate around the rink so he could get a sense of my ability. I was nervous, and because one's center of gravity isn't the same on figure skates as it is on hockey skates, I moved awkwardly. After an hour, Peter said: "Okay. Now that you're warmed up, let's get to work." Warmed up? I thought, Dude, I'm dead. It was my first indication that this wasn't going to be a do-a-few-laps-then-have-cocoa experience. "You want me to try again?" I asked. "I want you to do it 100 more times," he said. "We've got a short period of time to achieve a long-term goal."

I soon discovered that progress in figure skating is tedious. In one session, I spent 20 minutes holding my arm a certain way, practicing until I got it right. Programs look easy, but every glide, spin, jump, and arabesque is timed to the music. When you raise your arm or point your toe, you have to be conscious of creating a pleasing line, simultaneously plotting out every step so you're in position for the next move. I began to feel deflated because my goal was to go from A to Z -- and it was taking forever to get to B. But I used a mental trick I'd learned while I was losing weight: Focus on the next step in the process, not the end of the line.